American Church Group--Ohio

Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company is one of the nation’s leading insurers of churches and ministries. In business since 1917, Brotherhood Mutual® provides property, liability, commercial auto, workers’ compensation, mission travel insurance, and payroll services* to ministries throughout the United States, including:

Churches

Church day nurseries

Christian camps

Schools

Association/Denomination offices

Colleges and universities

Other related ministries

Brotherhood Mutual is represented by independent agents who subscribe to a code of ethics based on scriptural principles and serve in churches and ministries of their own. The company consistently earns an A (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best, a leading authority in rating insurance companies. For additional information, visit www.brotherhoodmutual.com.

*Payroll services are provided through MinistryWorks®, a subsidiary of Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company.

What We Believe

Doctrinal Statement

The Scriptures

We believe that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired by God, and that the original writings are inerrant. We embrace all matters that the Biblical authors address, and we believe that they are the supreme and final authority for faith and life.II Timothy 3:16, 17; II Peter 1:19-21

God

We believe in one, true, living God; an infinite, all knowing, all powerful, ever present Spirit, the Creator and Supreme Ruler of Heaven and earth, inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love and that in the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons. These three are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.Genesis 1:1,2; Proverbs 30:4; Matthew 28:19; Mark 12:29; John 1:1-4; Acts 5:3,4; II Corinthians 13:14

Jesus Christ

We believe that Christ is absolute Deity, that He is both human and divine, both true God and true man, and that He existed from eternity and is co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that He was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life, that He provided a substitutionary atonement for sinful man, and that He died on the cross, was buried, arose bodily from the grave, that He ascended bodily into Heaven. We believe that He intercedes now for the saints, and that He will return literally to earth after the Tribulation to set up His millennial reign.Matthew 1:20,21,28; Mark 16; Luke 1:26-28, 24; John 1:1,2,14, 10:30; Acts 1:11; I Corinthians 15:4; II Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 4:15, 9:26; I John 5:20.

Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son, that He was active in creation, and that He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We believe that He is the agent in the New Birth, that He baptizes all believers into the body of Christ at conversion, and that He indwells, seals, endures, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, fills, and helps the believer.

We believe that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all believers. We also believe that the sign/revelatory gifts of the Holy Spirit have fulfilled their purpose for the church age and are not applicable to the work of the Holy Spirit today.Psalm 139:7-12; John 14:16-17, 16:13-14; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 6:19; 12:8-10, 28-30; 13:8-10;14:1-40; Hebrews 2:2-4

Devil and Satan

We believe in the reality and personality of Satan, the Devil, and that he was created by God as an angel but, through pride and rebellion, became the enemy of his Creator, that he became the unholy god of this age and the rulers of all powers of darkness and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire.

Matthew 4:1-11; II Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:10

The Creation

We believe in the Biblical account of Creation, including angels, physical universe, and man, that is a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate, creative acts of God, without any evolutionary process.Genesis 1:26, 27, 2:7-9, 16, 17, 3:1-19

Fall of Man

We believe that man, created in the image of God, was innocent, but that he voluntarily sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death, but spiritual and eternal death which is separation from God, and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners in thought, word, and deed.Genesis 3:6; Romans 1:18-32, 3:10-19, 5:12-19

The Virgin Birth

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and that He is both true God and true man.Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:14; Philippians 2:6-11

Salvation

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice and rose again for our justification. We believe that all those who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood and are saved by grace through faith wholly apart from human merit and works.Acts 13:39, 16:31; Romans 3:21-28; Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:3-8

Grace and New Birth

We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again, that the new birth is a new creation in Jesus Christ, that it is instantaneous and not a process, and that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God. We believe that the new creation is brought about in a manner above our comprehension, not by culture, not by character, nor by the will of man, but wholly and solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel, that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life.John 1:12, 13, 3:3, 6-8; Acts 16:30-33; Romans 6:23; II Corinthians 5:17,19; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 2:1, 5:9; Colossians 2:13; II Peter 1:4; I John 5:1

Justification

We believe that the Justification is the judicial act of God, in which He declares the believer righteous because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, and that it is given not because of works but only through faith in the Redeemer's shed blood.Romans 3:24, 4:5, 5:1-9; Galatians 2:16

Sanctification

We believe that Sanctification is the divine setting apart of the believer unto God, accomplished in a threefold manner; first, an eternal act of God based upon the redemption in Christ, establishing the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts the Savior; second, a continuing process in the saint as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to life; third, the final accomplishment of this process at the Lord's return.John 17:17; I Corinthians 1:30; II Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 5:25-27; I Thessalonians 4:3-4, 5:23-24; Hebrews 3:1, 10:10-14; I John 3:2; Jude 23, 25; Revelation 22:11

Separation

We believe in personal separation from all practices and influences of the world which hinder a Spirit-filled life. We believe in biblical separation from all forms of ecclesiastical liberalism, apostasy, and compromise. We acknowledge the freedom and responsibility of each autonomous local church to apply these separation principles according to its understanding of Scripture.Romans 6:1-14, 12:1; I Corinthians 6:14, 7:1; Galatians 5:16-25; Colossians 3:1-17; James 4:4; I John 2:15-17

Security of the Saints

We believe that all who are truly born again are eternally kept by God.John 10:28, 29; Romans 8:35-39; Philippians 1:6; Jude 1

The Local Church

We believe that the local church is an organized body of immersed believers, associated by covenant, observing the ordinances of Christ, having the offices of pastor and deacon, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges and responsibilities given them by the Word, and that it has the absolute right of self government, free from outside interference and is directly responsible to God. We believe that the church, which is His body, includes all New Testament believers from Pentecost to the Rapture. We believe the mission of the church is to glorify God, edify believers, and seek to evangelize the lost.Matthew 18:15-17, 28:19,20; I Corinthians 1:2, 7:17, 10:31, 11:16, 12:28; Ephesians 1:12,22,23, 2:14, 15, 4:11,12, 5:23-32; I Timothy 3:1-15

Baptism and the Lord's Supper

We believe that baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water to show forth his identification with the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, through Whom we died to sin and rose to a new life; that baptism is to be performed under the authority of the local church, and that it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. We believe that the Lord's Supper is the commemoration of His death until He come, and should be preceded always by solemn self-examination.Matthew 3:16, 28:16-20; John 3:34, Acts 2:41, 42, 8:36, 38, 39; Romans 6:3-5; I Corinthians 11:23-28; Colossians 2:12

Righteous and Wicked

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and wicked; that only those who are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse, and this distinction holds among men both in and after death. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all dead; the saved to a life of eternal glory and blessing in Heaven with God; but the unsaved to eternal judgment of conscious suffering in the lake of fire.Genesis 18:23; Proverbs 14:32; Malachi 3:18; Matthew 7:13, 14, 25:34-41; Luke 9:21, 16:25; John 5:28, 29, 8:21, Romans 6:17, 18, 23, 7:6; I John 5:19; Matthew 10:28, 18:8, 9, 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-49; John 5:28, 29; II Thessalonians 1:6-9; Revelation 10:6, 11-15, 21:1-8

Civil Government

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed. However, we believe that civil government has no right to legislate or seek to control matters of religious faith or practice.Exodus 18:21, 22; II Samuel 23:3; Psalm 72:11; Daniel 3:17, 18; Matthew 10:28, 22:21, 23:10; Acts 4:19, 20; 5:20, 23:5; Romans 13:17; Philippians 2:10, 11; Titus 3:1; I Peter 2:13, 14, 17; Revelation 10:16

Future Events

We believe in the imminent "Blessed Hope," the Rapture of the church before the Tribulation, when "The Lord shall descend from heaven" to catch up His bride to meet Him in the air and to participate in the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Marriage of the Lamb in Heaven; that the Tribulation will begin on the earth simultaneously, culminating in the literal return of Christ to earth at the end of the Tribulation, the setting up of His millennial reign which is followed by the eternal state, including the new heaven and the new earth.Isaiah 7:14, 9:6; John 14:1-3; I Corinthians 15:42-58; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 1:5-7, 19:11-16, 20:1-6